Going To The Beach With The Fam

Today I went to the Arcachon beach with a classmate of mine, Amina, and her family. Yesterday I had gone to her house to help her daughter with English homework, and we had started to talk about the area around Bordeaux. When it was discovered that none of us (except Amina's husband) had seen the Dune de Pyle, it was offered that we go today.
It was amazing! My pictures do not do it justice, but the dune is HUGE! There were times when I honestly was afraid I would fall down the side of it and just roll all the way down and hit a tree. Seriously, terrifying. The only thing that made it safe was the fact that it was sand. I mean, there were real cliffs! But, if fell of the side, then you would just roll on the sand, which is pretty forgiving. The danger then, is to fall into the sea, or hit a tree :) See? Safe. Right. But it was really cool. I am so glad that we went.
It is very fun to hang out the them. The daughter, Siham, is learning English, but she is about as good at English as I am at French, so we have a fun time trying to talk. The husband, Jeephed (I don't know how to actually spell his name, but that is how it sounds) can also somewhat speak English, and tries very hard. He would really like to learn English, so though I have been asked to speak to Siham, Jeephed talks to me more. Its really cool, 'cause while I am helping with their English, I am learning more French and gaining confidence! So, its a win wins situation, and I get some fun family time.
It is weird how much Amina reminds me of Mama. I went shopping with her the other night, and she would do just as Mama would do, and seem to just grab things off the shelf, without explaining why she needed it or anything. Jeephed had to keep on asking her WHY. It was so funny. But its also hard to be around her. In a way, because she reminds me of mama, I want to talk to her more, but we speak such different languages that it makes it very difficult. Amina does not speak English at all, so French is our only option, and while I am getting better, I am still far from being able to just HAVE a conversation. Hopefully it will get better though, and I am excited for more times of hanging out with that family.
Now, to explain the pictures a bit: We went to the dune, and we also went to the beach. They are not quite the same place, so we had to drive to each. At the beach we had crepes and tea! So yummy :) Amina has three kids: Siham is the oldest, Elah (or something like that) is the little boy, and then Ziheph (or however you spell it) is the little girl. She is the cutest thing ever and has now warmed up to me to let me hold her and play with her. They are a wonderful and cute family and have been very generous to me.

Well, thats about it. Hope you all are having great days and I will post again when I have something fun!

A Day In The Sun

Yesterday we went to the beach. It was gorgeous! I don't know what I was expecting when I thought about beaches in France, but I was pretty surprised to find them pretty much the same as beaches I have been to in the states. There were no palm trees, but the sand was just as clean and fine as in Florida, and the bushes and sun felt like any beach on the east coast. Don't get me wrong, it was not disappointing at all! It was just so familiar, that I forgot for a while that we were even in France.
Marie had her family's car for the day, so we were able to relax into our own schedule. We got there soon after noon, and we didn't leave until about 6pm. It was a lovely day.
The boys found a small football in a tourist shop near the boardwalk. It was a funny little football. Rubber, blue, and the letters USA apparently written on the wrong side of the ball. I don't know anything about the correct placement of words on a football, but it was bugging the boys so much they could not stop talking about it. Apparently, if you held it the correct way, it made it look like a strange VSN, and the boys would not let that fact go. I found it amuzing, but the boys took some offence to it and so made sure we all knew how annoying it was to have it written on the wrong side. Oh well :)
It was too cold to swim, but the sum was warm enough to tan. Soon we were all building stuff in the sand. The boys made a 3D face, with the tongue sticking out and the eyes bulging. My camera ran out of batteries just as we got there, so I don't have any other pictures of it, but it was a very funny face.
Other than building in the sand, the boys played with their ball and Marie and I sat and read. It was nice to just be hanging with her. I have not really talked to a girl since Abby and Malcolm left, so I enjoyed the feminin chatting that Marie and I had. We don't talk a ton, but when we hang out we usulaly end up talking.
I don't know when we will be able to go back , but for that one day, I loved it.
Well, that is about it :) I hope you all get a chance to go to a beach soon.... its totally worth it!

Geneva's and Abby's and Malcolm's grand day out.

I have had the most amazing adventure! I am sorry that I have taken so long to get it all down and share the wonderful adventure with you. The hardest thing about writing this blog is the narrowing down of information. I feel as though I was gone a month! And with that many adventures, can you really blame me for putting off blogging about them? Its hard work going through my notes in my journal to pick out the stories that are worth the time :)
To start with: the journey up to Paris.
I went by myself, by train. It was awesome. At first I was so nervous that I just got on the train and sat down and turned on a movie on my iPod. After the train started moving I happened to glance up and I saw a castle! I real castle. Or at least, that is what it looked like to me. It then occurred to me how silly it was to be watching "Mama Mia" on my iPod when there were castles, Chateaux and churches all around to be seen as I rode past. Crazy right!? I quickly turned OFF my iPod, spent the rest of the journey happily watching the fields and villages pass.
I got to Paris just at dusk. I had hoped to get there before dark, so that the metro ride and walk to my hotel would not be nervous at all, but I didn't think about when sunset ACTUALLY was :) The metro was fine though. I had written down exactly what I had to do to get to the hotel, so I was in no danger of getting lost. And I didn't! I was able to find the hotel very quickly.
The hotel man was very nice, and I am now sad that I never learned his name. Abby nick-named him Francois, and I am just as happy to keep that his name. I hope when my Papa and Tykah come and visit, that we will go back to that hotel, since it was very nice, and the guy was very helpful.
Anyway, the hotel was nice. I had reserved the room online, so I just arrived, paid for it, and went up to my room. I debated going out and finding a cheap cafe to have dinner in, since it was just about dinner time, but I didn't really want to wander too far away from the hotel after dark, so I ended up going to dinner at a small cafe just around the corner. It was the first time I have had dinner by myself in a nice restaurant, and it was fun! The waitress gave me a bit of a funny look when I asked for a table for one, but in the end it was lots of fun. The food was wonderful and I got to feel all grown up :)
The rest of the trip was long, and rather complicated, so I shall just give you a time table:
Day 1:
The next morning I got up at 5am and went to meet Abby and Malcolm at the airport.
Once we were back at the hotel, we decided to freshen up a bit and go for a walk towards Notre Dame. We had been given coupons for a ride on the boats that circle the islands in the Seine (one of which has Notre Dame on it). It was rather providential, because just as we were getting there a group of Swiss farmers were buying their tickets, and they had room in their group, so we were able to get tickets for half price! It was awesome. And a wonderful boat ride!
After a small cafe lunch, we went to walk around Notre Dame.
We ended up seeing the Cathedral inside and out, with a private tour in English and then climbing up the towers to see the wonderful view. So beautiful! I loved it. Though walking around the Cathedral made me homesick for a Cathedral here in Bordeaux :)
After Notre Dame we were tired, so we returned to our hotel to rest before dinner.
And that was the end of the first day.
Day 2:
Woke up as early as I could make my body (so, about 8:30) and went and got a baguette for us to have breakfast.
Then we all went to the Louvre and enjoyed a few hours of getting lost within the HUGE museum. I didn't believe it before, but now I understand what they mean when they say you would need at least a few months to even just glance at everything!
After the Louvre we wandered across the Seine and found a petit cafe to have lunch in. It was a lovely cafe, and after our sandwiches we all shared a delicious crepe with ice cream and whipped cream :) Very delightful.
After lunch we walked the rest of the way to Musee d'Orsay to see their collection of impressionist paintings. Very cool!
It was a very long day, so we decided to take a rest in the Tuileries gardens before walking towards the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to see the tower as the sun was setting, which ended up making our journey there perfect timing. We climbed all the way to the 2nd floor by the stairs, and then rode the elevator to the top. SOO amazing!
We then wandered around looking for a good restaurant to eat at. I think this was the night that we stopped at this funny place where they make their own orange wine. We didn't have any of the wine, but we took lots of pictures of the pots and pans and other kitchen utensils that they had nailed or somehow fastened to the walls. It was wonderfully quirky, but obviously one of a chain.
Day 3:
This day would be Thursday. This day, I decided to give Abby and Malcolm a later morning, so got up at 8:30, showered, then took a walk. It was awesome to be up and about before the rush of tourists hit the shops. I realized how different Paris is from Bordeaux. In Paris, there were always people around that were very likely to speak English or some other language other than French. To me, that signals that they are tourists. Now, being one myself, I can't say too mean things about tourists, but I have to say, that living in Bordeaux has made me rather critical of people who speak English in France. Since I am here to enjoy the language I find it somewhat frustrating and disappointing to be surrounded by those who don't speak French either. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but that is the best I could do to describe it. I took a walk through the Tuileries gardens and then came back to our hotel by way of the Seine. So beautiful.
Once I got back we made our way to Montmartre with a packed lunch. We climbed the MANY stepps to Sacre-Coeur and sat on the steps facing Paris to eat our lunch. I loved Montmartre. It was so much more.... French, than the down town touristic streets that we had been walking before.
Walking down past the Moulin Rouge, we headed back towards the Arc de Triomphe and the Chaps-Elysees. Such wonderul monuments that mean so much more to me now that I have actually seen them!
Day4:
This day we took a walk to the Luxemborg gardens. I think they are my favorite gardens in Paris. More sheltered than the Tuileries, they also had a more friendly feel. We then went back to our rooms and packed our stuff to go to Versailles! We had to take all of our stuff with us since after seeing the Palace we were going to catch a train to Tours.
The Palace of Versailles is thankfully equipped with a baggage check, so once there we were able to deposit our bags in a safe place while we were free to wander the grounds.
The Palace was exquisite and HUGE! The gardens were beautiful and very French, but the whole experience was made by our renting bikes and riding to Marie-Antoinette's village and wandering around those grounds. It was wonderfully beautiful. Abby and I each picked out a house that we wanted.... you can't blame us either, since they are awesome houses!
We picked up our bags and caught the train to Tours. This train was rather annoying, since we ended up having to stop and only a little away from Paris because of an accident on the tracks.
The hotel that we had found in the book was expecting us, so even though we got there after it closed, we were able to get into a nice little room.... on the 4th floor. Now, if you didn't know, in France, the 4th floor is our 5th floor. They don't count the ground floor :) Considering we had been wandering and walking around for the last few days, the 4th floor was somewhat frustrating to manage at 11:30 at night.
(Pictures: us in a garden in Tours having breakfast on Day 5)

Day 5:
The next morning none of us really wanted to move, but we found our way to Chenonceaux to visit the Chateau de Chenonceau. It is by far my favorite Chateau that I have seen!
(Pictures: first 2 at the village of Chenonceaux, the rest at the Chateau)











Coming back to Tours we went shopping and then dressed up to go out to dinner. We picked a nice cafe near what very well have been the center of Tours, though I don't know the city well enough to actually know that for sure. It was a lovely evening!
Day 6:
Today we packed out stuff and left it with the hotel woman and hopped the train to Blois. For those of you who do not know, Blois is a little town that has a Chateau and access to buses to more Chateaux near there. So we arrived and found a bus to Chateau de Chambord. The funny thing is that all we knew when we arrived was that the tour book said that there would be buses, but we didn't know much more than that. We looked around and generally felt very lost until I talked to the ticket man and he told us where we needed to be. It was a few hours till the bus was to arrive, so we decided to go see the Chateau de Blois while we waited. It was so amazing! So beautiful, and so full of history; each addition to the Chateau styled after a different era. It was also very lucky, since that day was the first Sunday in March, meaning that the Chateau was free to enter! It was wonderful.




After the Chateau we had lunch in a small cafe with delicious omletts and then went back to the bus stop to see if the bus had come yet.
Soon it did come and we paid our 4.20 euros to go the 30mins to Chambord.
The Chateau do Chambor was also way too amazing for words. SO HUGE, but beautiful. Its the sort of place where unless you are very aware of your surroundings, you get lost VERY easily. And it was SO cold inside the Chateau. The walls were all stone, and kept in the cold very well, so even though the sun made outside warm, the Chateau ddin't seem to absorb any of it.
After taking the bus to Blois and then the train back to Tours, we grabbed our stuff, a quick dinner at MacDonalds, then hopped back on the train for our 3 hour trip down to Bordeaux. This was maybe the most comfortable train, though it was not the one with the most space.
We arrived in Bordeaux at about 10:30pm, and shoved our way onto the tram to take the few stops to a friends appartment. My friend had been kind enough to leave her keys with me so that the three of us could stay there while Abby and Malcolm were in town.

For the next 2 days we just wandered around Bordeaux. I was able so show Abby and Malcolm all around the city that I have been living in, and that was wonderful. It made me look again at all the places that I have been enchanted with and appreciate them anew.
They had to put up with hanging out by themselves in my dorm room for one hour though, and that was surprisingly hard for me. I wanted to be with them, and realized, as I went into school, just how short the visit was. I am pretty good about homesickness: I have not felt really homesick since I was close to 12 I think. But on Wednesday, after I got on the tram to go back to school, and after dropping them off at the right tram stop, I felt very homesick.

But, as it has been... weeks since Abby and Malcolm left, I am back to normal now. I love home, but I am very happy to be here.
I have been fighting a cough/cold that I got in Paris, which is annoying, but other than that... life is great right now! The weather is getting warmer, so that makes everything better :)

OK, now, about the pictures. I took TONS of pictures when we were in Paris and everywhere, but I dumped them onto Abby's computer so that I could have room for more... and I forgot to get them back. So, these pictures are mainly of the Chateau de Chenonceau and Chateau de Blois, and I have some to add from the Chateau de Chambord. If you want to see more pictures of the adventure, go on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=39758692&op=3&o=global&view=global&subj=592780158&id=7720519#/album.php?aid=2285846&id=7720519&page=3

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=39758692&op=3&o=global&view=global&subj=592780158&id=7720519#/album.php?aid=2285334&id=7720519

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=39758692&op=3&o=global&view=global&subj=592780158&id=7720519#/album.php?aid=2285142&id=7720519

I am not sure if that will work or not, but I thought I would give it a try anyway.

Well, thats all I think. There is aways more to tell, so that is my best at making it a list. Maybe sometime I will be able to come back and add more too it :)

Love you all, and until next time!!